HP motor racing, Goldbach, D

The 5. race of the GCC on the wonderful nature motocross track in the Goldbach stadium near Aschaffenburg, which was Extended to the surrounding fields for the cross country race once again turned out to be one of the highlights of the racing season.

After a few rainshowers in the morning the conditions were dustfree and truly ideal for the final run of the professionals and semi-professionals with more than 500 participants.

Apart from BMW works rider Simo Kirssi, two other BMW HP 2 factory enduros took part for the Munich-based motorcycle manufacturer.

Guest starter and multiple German enduro champion Sascha Eckert and extreme race expert Gerhard Forster successfully reinforced the team.

Man and material performed superbly during the 2-hour heat battle.

The results: a 10th and 11th overall ranking for Simo Kirssi and Sascha Eckert in the professional class and Gerhard Forster rode to 24th place in the extremely competitive semiprofessional class.

To prove just how high-calibre the semi-pro field currently is, one just has to compare the racing times.

Forster?s time would have taken him to 12th place in the pro-class directly behind Sascha Eckert.

The race was won by the defending champion Arnaud Demeester from France.

After the summer break a further five Cross Country races are on the program for the BMW Motorrad Team Offroad in Germany, Italy and Austria.